Just Relax
by Lil' Pink Coupe
Summary: Maryanna finds out that Pink is about due for a certain medical procedure that all women are required to have, and that she's scared.Rated for  strong emotional scenes, a brief drug ref in Ch. 1, and content regarding women's health concerns.
1. Intro

Just Relax

PLEASE READ:

Hello, everybody. Now, this story is going to deal with a topic that many teenage girls and young women are loath to dwell on or even discuss: going in for regular PAP smears. I have actually wanted write a fanfic that revolves around this subject matter for a few years now – ever since I first found out what PAP smears were in my 10th grade Health class. I'll admit that my first reaction to learning of them was, "WHAT? They DO this?" (Which is actually a question voiced by various characters many times in the following story) and if I remember correctly, I even went to sleep that night with my legs crossed, LOL! :P

Anyway, I just wanted to clear a few things up about why I gave this fic the rating I did…it's going to be considerably more heavy – handed and pathos – laden than most of my other fics, and for another thing, it deals with very personal health and wellness concerns for women. Writing heavy – handed and pathos – laden works of fiction is something that does not come naturally to me, given the fact that I usually use humor as my coping method of choice when dealing with life's problems and obstacles.

Any flames or immature comments will not be tolerated.

I was inspired to write this fanfic in order to gather courage for what may be soon to come – and also, to help others my age getting ready for their first PAP smear to feel empowered and relaxed as well.

It's not gonna be that bad. That's what I've heard, anyway. :)

Love to all,

CrankyHornedNoseJudithFangrrl, AKA CarolJudithFan


	2. Please Come to Crowville

Just Relax

Duke chuckled in his throat pouch as he browsed Pink's updated Flickr photostream.

"Hey, you all! Check this out! Pink put something really funny on here last night!" he announced. Big Bertha, Sonny, Francis, and Maryanna hurried over to see what in Crowville was so darned funny. Maryanna was especially interested. Pink was her best friend, and she always kept up with Pink's various postings on her Flickr and Livejournal accounts. Sometimes when Pink posted questions on Yahoo! Answers, Maryanna would volunteer the most sensible answers she could come up with, under the username, "Loves_to_Hug." She did, after all, work in child psychology.

Pink's latest Flickr upload, however, gave Maryanna pause. The most recent photo in the stream showed Pink pretending to be dead in the classic comical fashion; with her eyes rolled back and her toungue lolling out. On her chest, she was clasping her favorite "flower pen" with the plastic lily taped to it.

Maryanna found herself growing irritated with the way her friends found this amusing. She often had clients in crisis referred to her in her line of work, and she did not regard allusions to death as a laughing matter, no matter how comical they were. And if this was the sort of thing Pink was uploading onto Flickr, then what must be happening in her world? This was a cry for help in the truest sense of the term!

"Well, _I _don't find this at all funny!" Maryanna snapped, causing Duke, Big Bertha, Sonny, and Francis to look up from the laptop in surprise. "What if Pink didn't just put this on here to be funny, is really going through something hard? I'm legally bound to take these kinds of things seriously!" And with that, she flounced out of the common area of Mildred's Pad to make a phone call.

"Geez, whatever! Thanks a heap for bringing me down!" Sonny yelled after her, and went to find the special lock box where he kept his stash.

…

"Please pick up, please pick up, please pick up," Maryanna prayed as she waited for her call to Pink's cell phone to go through. "Come on, Pink baby, it's me…I know you're scared of answering your phone, but I only want to help you….if you were to do anything rash, I'd be heartbroken; absolutely heartbroken!"

"Hello?" she finally heard on the other end. Maryanna breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why, hello, there, Pink! How ARE you this morning?" Maryanna asked cordially.

"Uhh…I'm…good, thanks for asking," Pink replied, slightly taken aback by Maryanna's exuberant salutation.

"Really? Oh, wonderful! I'm so happy to hear that!" Maryanna babbled. Sometimes she wondered how she had managed to get a job in psychology when she was not even able to become properly detached from those she wanted to help. "What have you been up to this morning?"

"Uh, well, I'm pretty much just chillin' in my dorm room, Maryanna," Pink replied. "Leanne went home for the weekend, so it's just me here."

"Oh, really? Just you there? Well, if you were so inclined, maybe I could pick you up and bring you here to Crowville for a spell!" This was the perfect opportunity for Maryanna to snag some time to speak with Pink privately about what was going on.

"Um, well….I dunno, Maryanna…I kinda just wanted to be by myself today," Pink replied hesitantly.

Oh, no. This couldn't mean anything good. Pink never turned down an opportunity to see her crow friends unless she became really withdrawn and something was weighing very heavily on her mind.

"I bet we could find something fun to do!" Maryanna added, trying to hide how desperate she was.

"Well….all right!" Pink finally agreed. She was reluctant to admit it even to herself, but she'd secretly been longing for the opportunity to just cuddle with Maryanna and be held safe in her wings, and maybe have a good cry and vent a little bit.

"Good girl! I'll be over there before you can say "Tickle my nose with a feather and bless me when I sneeze!" Maryanna replied quickly, hanging up the phone.

Pink just stood there for a moment, staring at her compact silver phone with the Bambi charm dangling from it, as the busy signal droned on.

"Uh…yeah, see ya then," she replied in bewilderment, and snapped her phone closed.

_Arrgh, this HAS to be about my latest upload to my Flickr stream, _Pink thought to herself as she got ready. _It just has to be._


End file.
